Horatio Gates

1728 - 1806

Major General

Horatio Gates - A Klos Family Project

Click on an image to view full-sized

Horatio GatesMajor-General

GATES, Horatio, soldier, born in
Malden, Essex County, England, in 1728; died in New York City, 10 April, 1806.
The story that he was a natural son of Sir Robert Walpole is without foundation.
His parents were the butler and the housekeeper of the Duke of Leeds. Horace
Walpole, himself a mere lad, who chanced at the time to be visiting that
nobleman, good-naturedly acted as his god-father. He entered the army while a
youth, and served in this country in command of the king's New York independent
company.

Early in 1755 he was stationed at Halifax, where, under the protection of the
non. Edward Cornwallis, at that time governor of Nova Scotia, uncle of
Lieutenant-General Lord Cornwallis, he rose
rapidly to the rank of major. Accompanying Braddock
on his unfortunate expedition, he was shot through the body at the slaughter of
the Monongahela, and for a long time was disabled. In July, 1760, he was
brigade-major under Monekton at Fort Pitt, and in
1762 was with that general, as an aide, at the capture of Martinique, rendering
effective service and establishing a reputation for military ability. At the
close of the war he bought an estate in Berkeley County, Virginia, where he
remained, quietly cultivating his land, until the beginning of the Revolution
caused him to offer his sword to congress; and in July, 1775, he received from
that body the appointment of adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier.

In the following year he was appointed to the command of that portion of
the northern army which had been successively commanded in Canada by Montgomery,
Arnold, Wooster, Thomas, and Sullivan. This
step put Gates over Sullivan, his senior in rank, much to the disgust of that
officer; and it marked the beginning of a series of intrigues by which, with the
aid chiefly of the New England delegates in congress, Gates was pushed into
higher places, at first superseding Schuyler and afterward attempting to
supersede Washington. Gates's
present command was over "the northern army in Canada," with
headquarters at Ticonderoga. When he reached that fortress he found there was no
longer any northern army in Canada, because it had retreated into New York. He
then set up a claim to the command of this portion of the northern army
independently of Schuyler, who was
commander-in-chief of the northern department, with headquarters at Albany. The
matter being referred to congress, a discussion ensued, as the result of which
Gates was instructed to consider himself subordinate to Schuyler.
The scheme for superseding the latter general only slumbered, however, and in
the summer of 1777 it was carried out in the midst of the panic produced by the
rapid advance of Burgoyne.

On 2 August, Gates was appointed to command
the northern department. He has been suspected of a lack of personal courage, a
suspicion that is strengthened by his conduct during the battle of 7 October,
1777; for while Burgoyne was in the thickest of
the fight, receiving three bullets through his clothes, Gates,
two miles away, was looking forward to a possible retreat. Scarcely had the
action begun when, by his command, the baggage-trains were loaded, and teamsters
placed at the horses' heads, in readiness to move at a moment's notice, Gates
ordering them to move on or halt alternately, as the news from the battle-field
was favorable or adverse. Indeed, the same incapacity that afterward was so
apparent in Gates, during his unfortunate
southern campaign, was manifested from the time of his assuming the command of
the northern army until the surrender. The laurels won by him should really have
been worn by Schuyler and Arnold.
Not only had the army of Burgoyne been
essentially disabled by the defeat at Bennington before the arrival of Gates,
but the overthrow of St. Leger at Fort Stanwix had deranged the plans of the
British general, while safety had been restored to the western frontier, and the
panic thus caused had subsided. After the surrender, the bearing of Gates toward
the commander-in-chief was far from respectful. He did not even write to the
latter on that occasion; nor was it until the second day of November that he
deigned to communicate to Washington a word
upon the subject, and then only incidentally, as though it were a matter of
secondary importance.

Congress, in the first flush of gratitude, passed a vote of thanks to
Gates and his army, and presented him with a gold medal having on one side a
bust of the general, with the words "Horatio Gates duel strenuo",
and on the reverse a representation of Burgoyne
delivering up his sword. In November, 1777, he was made president of the new
board of war and ordnance, and during the following winter sought, with the aid
of the disreputable clique known as the "Conway cabal," to
supplant Washington in the chief command of
the army. His falsehoods in a series of intriguing letters having been exposed
by Washington, he fell into some discredit,
and in the spring of 1778 it became evident that his ambitious schemes had
miscarried. In the course of this affair he became involved in a quarrel with
Wilkinson, his former adjutant, which led to a duel, the details of which may be
found in the "Boston Evening Post and General Advertiser "for
17 October, 1778.

He retired from active service, and lived for some time on his estate in
Virginia, until he was appointed, 13 June, 1780, to the command of the army in
North Carolina designed to check the progress of Lord
Cornwallis. In the battle near Camden, South Carolina, 16 August, he was
defeated, and his army nearly annihilated. He was soon afterward superseded by General
Greene, and suspended from duty. A court of inquiry was appointed to
investigate his military conduct, and he was not acquitted or reinstated until
1782; so that the battle of Camden virtually ended his military career. At the
close of the war he retired to his estate in Virginia, where he lived until
1790, when he removed to New York City. In 1800 he was elected to the state
legislature, but for political reasons resigned soon after taking his seat. His
death occurred, after a long illness, at his house, now the corner of 22d Street
and 2d avenue, then the Bloomingdale pike.

Gates was a man of great plausibility and address, of a handsome person
and fair education, and a great lion in society. Though having many faults, the
chief of which was an overweening confidence in his own ability combined with
arrogance and untruthfulness, he had also some noble traits. Before removing to
New York from Virginia, he emancipated his slaves, providing for such of them as
could not take care of themselves. In his domestic relations he was an
affectionate husband and father, and, during the last years of his life, a
sincere Christian. He married Mary, only child of James Valence, of Liverpool,
who, at her father's death, before the Revolutionary war, emigrated to this
country, bringing with her $450,000. In the struggle for independence Mrs. Gates
freely expended nearly all of her fortune in a lavish hospitality upon her
husband's companions in arms, especially those that were in indigent
circumstances; and many of the Revolutionary heroes were participants in her
bounty, particularly Thaddeus Kosciusko,
who, when wounded, lay six months at her house, tenderly nursed by herself and
her husband.

Mrs. Gates, who survived her husband, left the residue of her fortune
($90,000) to several relatives, whose descendants are still living in New York
and Philadelphia. The Saratoga monument, shown in the accompanying illustration,
was erected to commemorate the surrender of General Burgoyne
to General Gates, and is in the village of Schuylerville, New York It is 155
feet in height, and stands within the lines of Burgoyne's
entrenchments, on a bluff 350 feet above Hudson River and overlooking the
surrender grounds. A staircase of bronze leads from the base to the top, whence
can be seen the entire region between Lake George, the Green mountains, and the
Catskills. On each of three sides of the monument is a niche containing heroic
statues of Generals Gates, Schuyler, and
Morgan, while the fourth is left vacant, with the name of Arnold
inscribed underneath. Within the monument, and lining its two stories, are alto
rilievo decorations in bronze, representing historical and allegorical scenes
connected with the campaign of Burgoyne. The
cornerstone of this structure was laid on 17 October, 1877, when poems and
addresses were delivered by Horatio Seymour, George William Curtis, James Grant
Wilson, Alfred B. Street, and William L. Stone. See Stone's "Campaign of
Lieutenant-General Burgoyne" (Albany,
1877), and Bancroft's "History of the United States " (6 vols.,
New York, 1884).

Unauthorized Site:
This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected,
associated with or authorized by the individual, family,
friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or
the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated
sites that are related to this subject will be hyper
linked below upon submission
and Evisum, Inc. review.

Research Links

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The
People. Click Here